Hi everybody I'm

I'm Brittany Lewis of reporter here at Forbes

joining me now is my Forbes colleague money and politics reporter Kyle

Con Mullins Kyle thanks so much for coming on.

Always great to be here, Brittany. Thanks for having me.

There is a really consequential race in Montana that could determine the balance of power in the Senate and you have a report that

really looks at the big money in that behind that race so let's look into that

but before we do before we get to the money aspect, let's talk about

the candidates. Let's first talk about Democrat Senator John Tester. He's the incumbent.

He is a Democrat in a red state. So what type of lawmaker is he?

John Tester is really an interesting character.

He's kind of this rural Democrat,

this brand that you just don't have a lot of anymore

that used to be much more common across the West. And you just don't have a lot of anymore that used to be much more common across the west and you just don't see that many anymore.

He is, for example, pro gun rights, you know, pro, very pro conservation, very poor voter security, but he also supported

the Affordable Care Act, for example.

So you know, this kind of rural Democrat, kind of similar actually to how Tim Walls was when he was in the house.

Tester before he went into politics he was a farmer in Montana and then he

started some time in the state legislature and then he's now

running for a fourth term in the Senate at the federal level.

And his Republican challenger is Tim Sheehee.

Who is he?

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